I wanted to offer congratulations to the youngster wearing New York Yankees t-shirt and baseball cap, the man wearing a light blue shirt and baseball cap, the man in uniform and the young woman standing in front of him. Congratulations too for the other true baseball fans in John Iacono’s photo of Yankees’ Derek Jeter making his 3,000 hit.
Boos and hisses the illiterate few who chose that moment to use their phones and point-shoot cameras to record what is a remarkable feat for a ball player.
Imagine for a moment you’re sitting in a front-row box seat at Yankee Stadium to watch the first ever Yankee go into the record books making 3,000 career hits. What it must have taken to get those seats. Even sitting in the first ten rows at that moment would have pleased even a Mets fan.
Now imagine, as a curveball approaches the bat you choose to turn away, to take your eyes from the plate, away from the stride and stroke, away from the power and performance, away from the record and reaction.
You narrow your eyes to an approximately 3×4-inch low resolution recorded version as Jeter, his feet planted into home plate dirt and his eyes focused on a 78-mile-per-hour orb, begins his stroke with a quick step, a turn of the hips and dip of the shoulder, to slam his bat against an opposing force, reversing its direction by adding the power of his body, the years of at bats and an accumulated strength of knowledge of the physics of baseball.
Your view of the field obscured by a LCD screen that may never resolve enough information to even mimic human eyesight. Blocked by a piece of electronics technology with limited ability to capture the essence of that historic moment.
Even Iacono’s photo is not bat on ball, the iconic moment for baseball photographers. And, the bat blurred, even at what must have been a very fast shutter speed. It’s not John’s fault. Bat on ball is an extremely difficult photo to shoot and who’s to say this photo was an editorial choice and he does have bat on ball only to lose it to an editor’s decision?
You use your camera phone or a point and shoot for a visual record of Jeter’s entrance into baseball record books. A camera with extreme shutter delay, slow shutter speed, limited zoom capability, and poor dynamic range.
Of what use are these photos? So the photographer can brag about being at Yankee Stadium for Jeter’s record breaking stroke? So the photo, if it is ever printed, stuck in a dresser drawer, file cabinet, or attic photo collection?
What disappointment there would be as the photographer bragged about being there to a friend and showed the photo on their phone or camera as proof?
“Nice photo. But, did you see him hit the ball or were you watching the back of your camera?” would be the question I’d ask.
“Did you actually see the hit or were you looking somewhere else? Is your photo the best memory of the moment?
There are times when it is not necessary to raise your camera in front of your face for a personal visual record. Especially when so many professional photographers are shooting the same moment with a greater ability to properly record history.
I would be embarrassed seen staring at the back of a camera while history is made. Just like these people missing Jeter’s 3,000th hit.
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